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American president George Bush and Russian president Vladimir Putin will meet in Slovenia on June 16, 2001. For the time being, it is most likely that they will meet at Brdo, although it hasn’t been officially confirmed so far.
This
will be, undoubtedly, an exceptional event for Slovenia, since it will
be of global importance, the more, since it will be the first meeting
of the present American president with his Russian peer. Slovenia has
gathered experience with visits being demanding organisation-wise, the
two most recent being the visit of American president Clinton and Pope
John Paul II., yet the Bush-Putin summit nevertheless opens numerous issues
of organisation and security to be considered, as well as the question,
in how much it will raise the profile of Slovenia.
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Slovenia is indeed situated at the fringes of an unstable piece of the world, but itself it is being stable and steady on its way into the Euro-Atlantic alliances. The choice of Slovenia as the location of the summit was therefore by no means a coincidence and Slovenia has definitely earned it. Moreover, Slovenia is a very safe country that is able to provide the security required for such a meeting. The Slovenian Minister of Internal Affairs and the Chair of the Organisation Committee, Dr. Rado Bohinc is convinced that the Slovenian police and security service are up to this task. Parallel to meetings of such importance, there are usually demonstrations of various organisations being organised. Demonstrations are in Slovenia regulated by law and the Slovenian police is well-prepared in this regard so that the Minister of Internal Affairs sees no major problems arising in this regard.
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Dr.
ALJA BRGLEZ
Director of the Government PR and Media Office |
The
government of the Republic of Slovenia expects that the Bush-Putin summit
will add significantly to the profile of the country. 1,500 to 2,000 journalists
are expected to cover the event on spot and their first response was favourable.
Their attention focuses besides on the summit also on the host country
itself. Some of them expressed interest to meet some Slovenian representatives
of business and industry. Dr. Alja Brglez, Director of the Government
PR and Media Office, believes that the Bush-Putin summit will represent
a fine chance to report on Slovenia as well. The Office is striving to
set up a dinner with the Slovenian leadership in order to beguile the
guests with some Slovenian hospitality and homeliness.
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The contents of the talks between the presidents are not known for now, but the fact is that it will be a rather short meeting which will not allow many issues to be covered nor settled. Since it will be the first meeting of two current super-power leaders, it will be according to the opinion of Dr. Anton Bebler, Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, a get-to-know meeting of both presidents. One of the topics will most certainly be the Anti Missile Defence and the security policy in general, as well as the Balkans and bilateral economic relations, says Mr. Bebler. However, there is no final agreement to be expected. It is possible that some general declaration will be issued, a joint statement of both presidents, yet it will be nothing decisive according to Mr. Bebler, since the super-powers take wide-apart standpoints concerning basic issues, which would be hard to bridge in such a short meeting.
The summit will most certainly add to a better diplomatic and political positioning of Slovenia supporting Slovenian diplomacy also in other areas. On June 25, 2001 Slovenia will celebrate its first decade of independence and being given the opportunity to organise a meeting of the American and Russian presidents is indeed an important acknowledgement to a young state.